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Pepperdine Wins WCC Men's Tennis Championship

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The Pepperdine men's tennis team won its 17th straight West Coast Conference (WCC) title Sunday with a 4-0 victory over the San Diego Toreros at the USD West Tennis Courts.

Pepperdine has met San Diego in each of the last seven championship matches and is 7-0 in those contests.

In other action, Saint Mary's defeated Santa Clara in the third place match, 4-2, San Francisco downed Portland 4-1 in the fifth place match, and LMU earned a 4-2 win over Gonzaga in the seventh place match.

Omar Altmann and Richard Johnson breezed to an 8-2 victory at the No. 1 position and Bassam Beidas and James Lemke sealed the double's point with an 8-6 victory on court No. 3.

The match was a lot closer than the sweep would indicate.

Lemke pushed the Pepperdine lead to 2-0 with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Jonas Mouly at the No. 3 poition and was the first of three Waves to pull out victories in the third-and-final set.

Johnson upped the lead to 3-0 with a 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-3 victory over Charl Wolmarans at the No. 4 position and Beidas sealed the championship when he rallied back after dropping the first set to Chris Coetzee for the 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win.

With the conference title, Pepperdine earns the WCC's automatic berth into the NCAA Championship Tournament beginning May 11.